Petra Kvitova overcomes Lesia Tsurenko to reach the fourth round – BNP Paribas Open 2013
World number seven, Petra Kvitova, breezed through the 74th ranked Ukrainian underdog, Lesia Tsurenko, in the third round battle of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday. The fifth seeded Czech had to work for 90 minutes before
settling the two-setter at 6-2, 7-6(5), eventually booking a spot in the pre-quarter-final round of the WTA Premier Mandatory event in Indian Wells, USA.
Kvitova took a flying start in the opening set of the match, breaking the Ukrainian rival in the third game fifth games to impose a 5-1 lead in no time. Tsurenko was baffled by the early onslaught from the fifth seeded opponent
and couldn’t do much recover from the damage. She held just one more serve before submitting the set to Kvitova at 2-6.
The following set witnessed a competitive start from both players. A total of four break points were exchanged from both sides, dragging the scores to 2-2. A conventional game followed, with the two contenders holding their respective
serves all the way to 6-6 and a tie-break came into play. Tsurenko held her nerve earlier in the decider and took the scores to 5-5 but a crucial mini-break from Kvitova did the trick, sealing victory for her at 7-6(5) in the end.
"I started pretty well today - I knew what I had to do, and I didn't make a lot of mistakes," Kvitova said. "It was a nice first set for me, but then she came back and started playing more aggressively, and she started making me
make some more mistakes. She came back very strong in that second set. I just had to stick with my game, focus on holding my serve and try my best on every point. It's a nice job to get my best result here. The surface doesn't suit me very well - it's quite
slow - but I'm trying, and I hope I can just keep improving my tennis and my standard will go higher. I'm still working hard on everything."
The left-handed Czech number one was hot favourite for winning the contest against 23-year-old Tsurenko after her title victory in Dubai. Kvitova bagged the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships last weekend and has carried on with
her wining momentum in Indian Wells to reach the fourth round convincingly. She will face her fellow compatriot, Klara Zakopalova, in the next encounter to fight for a place in the quarter-final of the tournament.
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